It is becoming illegal for employers to contact employees outside of normal business hours.
Recording artists have always known something about the work world that corporate America still doesn’t get. The Beatles sang about it, “It’s been a hard day’s night, and I’ve been working like a dog.” Cyndi Lauper belted it out: “When the working day is done, girls just wanna have fun.” Michael Jackson crooned it in Off the Wall: “So tonight gotta leave that nine-to-five upon the shelf and just enjoy yourself.” And Dolly Parton warned us about working nine to five: “It’ll drive you crazy if you let it.”
And Dolly’s right. It will, if you let it. But you don’t have to worry about nine-to-five workdays anymore. Since the global pandemic and “The Great Resignation,” we have 24/7 workdays, soaring job pressures and remote and hybrid workplace changes. “It’s enough to drive you crazy if you let it.” The key is not to let it, but in the past that’s been easier said than done.
Are You Tethered To Your Company 24/7?
Do you feel like you’re tethered to your smart phone?
Are you working far more than forty or fifty hours a week?
Are you eating fast food or vending machine snacks at your desk or skipping lunch altogether?
Does your company stay in constant contact with you even on weekends, holidays and vacations. Or do you forfeit vacations to keep on working?
Are you afraid to set boundaries when your boss keeps you on an electronic leash after work hours?
If you answered “yes” to some of these questions, you’re not alone. Increasingly, the American workforce finds themselves on a tightrope, trying to hold that line between peace of mind and frantic work stress, looking for a way to balance crammed schedules and keep work electronics from infiltrating their private lives. A 2021 study reported that nearly half of remote employees were working past midnight during the pandemic lock down because they couldn’t get everything done:
- 48% of remote employees reported working past midnight. Generation Z remote employees were the most likely to work past midnight (54%), while Baby Boomers were the least likely (34%).
- Non-managers' primary reason for working late was not being able to finish their work during the day (43%), while managers' primary reason for working late was freelancing or working a side job (36%).
- Millennials were the most likely to want to continue working at night (67%) and to consider working at night a perk (50%).
Should After-Work Contact Be Illegal?
In the words of the old Sam Cooke song, “A Change is Gonna Come.” You might be interested to know that efforts are afoot to stop companies from violating personal boundaries of employees after hours. It’s already the law in some countries. Employers can be in hot water for contacting employees after work hours in Portugal and France and that includes emails. In an effort to promote healthy work/life balance more countries are outlawing the practice of companies violating employee private boundaries after the workday is done. A similar bill is being debated in New York City to make it illegal to force employees to answer work communications outside of work hours.
Manager pressures are the reasons 58% of employees quit their jobs, according to one source. And new research shows popular support for outlawing outside-of-work contact across the united States to protect employee work-life balance. A recent survey of 1,000 employed Americans by Skynova found that nearly 70% of workers reported their employer contacts them outside of normal work hours at least once a week. And almost two in five employees said they work outside of scheduled hours because their boss expects it. Other key findings include:
- 63.3% of employees believe it should be illegal for employers to contact them outside of working hours.
- 64.2% said they always or usually answered when contacted outside of work hours.
- 3 out of 10 always answered when their boss contacted them after hours.
- 45% believed the penalty should be a fine, 39.5 % believed employers should be reprimanded and 39% said employers should pay a fine to the government.
- 90.4% said they wanted to be informed during the interview process regarding contact outside of working hours.
- 63.4% said it’s okay to be contacted if there’s a work emergency and 46.1% said in cases of urgent project deadlines.
The United States does not have laws forbidding employers from contacting employees after work hours yet. But the survey suggests it could be necessary because it happens with regularity. Most employed workers are contacted after hours at least once a week by their employers. And more than a quarter said they got several weekly outside-of-work contacts, with enormous pressures to respond to them. A total of 26.4% said they were contacted after hours a few times per week, and 35.5% said they usually and 28.7% said they always answered a boss’s after-hour message.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, a work emergency is an "unforeseen situation that threatens your employees, customers or the public; disrupts or shuts down your operations; or causes physical or environmental damage." Although 63% of employees were okay with receiving communication post-work in emergency situations, most said urgent deadlines or even extra compensation were not deemed reason enough to call once the working day was over. These findings point to the fact that labor laws are catching up to the technology. Plus, increasingly the American workforce is demanding that corporate America show respect and take responsibility to ensure that their mental and physical health is a priority.
